


Murder, Mormons, Monarchy, and...snakes?

by plethodon_cinereus



Category: 19th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF, No Fandom
Genre: 1800s, 19th Century, Anglo-Irish Relations, Gen, God Complex, Michigan, Monarchy, Mormon, Mormonism, Oral History, U.S. History, United States, how the fuck do i even tag this, local legend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25263340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plethodon_cinereus/pseuds/plethodon_cinereus
Summary: King Strang. Power hungry Mormon leader and self appointed King. Here's the true story of North America's only monarch that ran away to an island in the middle of nowhere, built some stuff, and got shot. The guy you love to hate.Someone who's lived on the island told me this story. It's a huge part of local history but at the same time is like a running joke. I’ve lived on the island for a few summers but didn’t grow up there. I wrote this without consulting Wikipedia or any outside information so this is just based off my memory.





	Murder, Mormons, Monarchy, and...snakes?

King Strang was a Mormon priest who wanted to break away from the branch of Mormonism he was part of in Michigan in the 1800s. He became a leader and amassed a large following. To maintain his power he took his followers to an island in the middle of Lake Michigan and claimed it as his own. On the island he named himself the king, making him the only true monarch in North America.   
At first people more or less accepted him as king. After all, they followed him as a church leader, and in the first few years he wasn’t terrible. They established a town on the north end of the island and named it after St. James, which is still the name of the town today.   
At some point Strang decided he wanted to build the first ever paved road on the island, which is pretty ambitious considering the terrain. He got people to do it, though it was likely via threat of force and something more akin to indentured servitude rather than true employment. They started paving the road starting from the town of St. James right down the middle of the island.  
Things sort of went crazy after a while, which is to be expected an island where it snows for half the year. The island itself is full of northern water snakes (nonvenomous but have a very powerful bite) and poisonous plants, dangerous terrain including bog mats, rip currents, and forests so dense even a well-trained forester doesn’t dare go out alone. Conflict between the Mormon Strang Squad and the non-Mormons living on the island increased. They sabotaged each other’s boats, got into fights, etc., a la Wild West. Alcoholism and murder.   
Strang was well and truly of his rocker, he claimed the island was the “promised land” for him and his Mormons, and used his religious authority to get what he wanted. Eventually people got tired of his power hungry reign. Some of the Mormons switched sides and left Strang’s church/cult, either by well and truly deserting or staying within the community but not truly believing.   
Because they were on an island they depended on shipping almost everything over from the mainland via boat. One night, King Strang was hanging out at the harbor telling people what to and just generally being his controlling regal self. A group of assassins surrounded him, hiding behind boulders and on boats, and shot him. He died and fell into the harbor.   
It wasn’t a terrible loss, most of the inhabitants of Beaver Island didn’t mourn Strang’s death. Those who did were family and a few of his remaining loyal followers. Pretty much right after he died the Mormons left, those who stayed on Beaver Island stopped following the Mormon church. They even stopped construction on the paved road. The island was then taken over by Irish immigrants escaping religious persecution.   
Today, the Irish culture dominates modern Beaver Island, it could be said that the non-Mormon Irish got their victory over the Strang Squad. The road was named King’s Highway after King Strang. It’s still the only paved road on the entire island and stops after just a few miles. Strang is treated more as a joke than anything. Other aspects of local history such as the sanctity of Native American burial grounds and contributions of Feodor Protar are revered.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a true story though I'm not sure how accurate I am since I did this entirely from memory. Sorry if I missed anything. If you want hard historical fact, here’s the official Wikipedia page for King Strang.  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Strang#Coronation_and_troubled_reign_on_Beaver_Island
> 
> (cross posted on my tumblr)


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